Good Neighbor Podcast: Colorado Springs
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Colorado Springs. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Tony Hills helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Colorado Springs
EP #106: Arthur Bellfield's Poetry Slam is creating space for authentic expression through friendly competition.
What makes Arthur Bellfield with Colorado Springs Poetry Slam a good neighbor?
Words have power—to heal, to connect, and to transform lives. Arthur Bellfield knows this firsthand. After moving to Colorado Springs and finding himself suddenly "homeless, friendless, family-less" following a devastating breakup, Arthur discovered salvation in an unexpected place: poetry.
What began as a search for community in a new city has blossomed into the Colorado Springs Poetry Slam, a monthly competition celebrating its two-year anniversary where poets from all backgrounds take the stage to share their authentic selves. "We take the poem from the page to the stage," Arthur explains, describing the friendly competitions where performers compete for a $100 prize before supportive audiences. But this is far more than entertainment—it's about creating space where people can express their truth without judgment.
The most exciting development is the upcoming poetic wellness workshop launching in mid-May at the Westside Community Center. Drawing inspiration from art and music therapy practices, these sessions will utilize poetry as a therapeutic tool for processing depression, anxiety, trauma, and recovery. Unlike the performance-focused slams, these workshops create space for reflection and healing through writing. As Arthur powerfully states, "Poetry saved me by giving me a home and giving me a voice." Now he's extending that same opportunity to others who might be struggling.
Whether you're a seasoned performer, a curious observer, or someone seeking connection in difficult times, the Colorado Springs Poetry Slam welcomes you exactly as you are. "We don't discriminate on age, race, gender, none of that," Arthur emphasizes. "We just want you to be yourself and know that there are people out there who resonate with your truth." Connect with this remarkable community through their website, Facebook group, or Instagram to discover how the healing power of words might transform your own life.
To learn more about Colorado Springs Poetry Slam go to:
https://coloradospringspoetryslam.com/
Colorado Springs Poetry Slam
719-725-8347
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Tony Hills.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a poetic wellness workshop? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing our good neighbor, arthur Belfill, with Colorado Springs Poetry. Slam, arthur, how's it going?
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Thank you for having me here, and I got a lot to say.
Speaker 2:Awesome. We are excited to learn about what it is that you do, so tell us about your business.
Speaker 3:Okay, basically, the Colorado Springs Poetry Slam works like this we have monthly poetry competitions On stage. We take the poem from the page to the stage and a friendly competition in front of a live audience. We have a musical guest normally a singer-songwriter from the community, and the poets compete to win $100 out of my own pocket. And we do it as a friendly competition. We also have a poetic wellness class which we're going to start in mid-May at the Westside Community Center, and basically what that is is utilizing poetry as a tool, similar to art and music therapy courses, where we use poetry as a tool to heal from depression, anxiety, recovery, trauma. So I'm really excited about this venture.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:I got into it because, honestly, I had no friends and I remember, you know, years ago I used to love going to open mics and portrait slams and when I moved here four years ago, there was no portrait slams, except for in Denver. So I decided to start one here and we just celebrated our two-year anniversary a couple Fridays ago. So the community has been responding and I tell people, when you get on stage, you're living in your truth, no matter if you're black, white, gay, straight, purple, whatever the case may be, we just want you to be your authentic self. We're not forcing people to be slam poets, we just want you to get up there and express yourself. That's all.
Speaker 2:Okay, awesome. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:The misconception I think the biggest one is people look at slam poetry as oh, they want to come and judge our trauma, which isn't further from the truth, because we just want you to be yourself and we look at your trauma, your plight, whatever you're going through, as a way of celebrating you, because sometimes when we're dealing with things in life, we feel alone. So on the stage people feel less alone because they see that other people resonate with what they're going through.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. Who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:I tell you, customers are anyone like. We don't use like race, like BIPOC events or queer events or anything like that as a marketing ploy, because when you look at our audience, you look at our poets. We have everyone different ages, different orientations we don't care, just want you there, whether you're an audience member, a judge or a poet to get on stage and live one of your truth. How do we get these people? Simple, they find us on programs like this. But also I'm very good at getting the word out on social media as well, as I'm one of those people.
Speaker 3:I go all over town passing out flyers, talking to people because I want them to come not just to the poetry slam. We also have poetry potluck events and we're starting the poetic expression wellness classes in May. So that's a little bit different because it's not performance based. It's basically we're just gonna go. We might have a topic like anxiety and see how you reflect I can't even talk today Reflect on that piece and do a little writing. So it's going to be a fun workshop and I hope a lot of people get a lot out of it.
Speaker 2:Okay, outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh fun, what's that? No, I just went to the sand dunes for the first time and I realized I'm 49 years old and I am out of shape. So you know getting out of nature and I'm still new to the whole outside life. But I wanted to become a bigger part of my existence, so I would still go out there, got my allergy pills. So my big goal this year is to do the incline.
Speaker 2:Okay, awesome, let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame, how it made you stronger and what comes to mind?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a tough one. I mentioned earlier that you know I moved from Texas four years ago. What I didn't mention was after I moved here, my wife cheated on me with this guy that played the ukulele. That was kind of insulting, but it left me homeless, friendless, family-less. And poetry saved me. I started going to Open Mic and Ultra Flat Black Gallery. They're closed now, but from there I birthed the Colorado Springs Poetry Slam. So poetry saved me by giving me a home and giving me a voice. That way I didn't just keep all that trauma inside and it gave me a way to release it.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, arthur, please tell the listeners one thing that they should remember about the carver springs poetry slam the one thing listeners should remember about the colorado springs poetry slam is that it's for everyone.
Speaker 3:We don't discriminate on age, race, gender, none of that. We just want you to be yourself and know that. You know there are people out there who resonate with your truth. That's the main thing. I want people to be yourself and know that you know there are people out there who resonate with your truth. That's the main thing I want people to you know.
Speaker 2:Have the takeaway okay, how can all listeners learn more about the carl springs poetry slam?
Speaker 3:they can go to either the colorado springs poetry slamcom website. They can go to the colorado springs poetry slam facebook group. I definitely encourage you to go there, because we update that more than we update the website, and we're on Instagram. You know, type in CO Springs Portrait Slam and you'll find us there. You'll find a lot of pictures, videos and, like I said, we are getting ready to start the wellness class in May, so definitely check those out. It's going to be, you know, home for everybody. It really is.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. Well, Arthur, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business and the Poetry Slam much success moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp colorado springscom. That's gnp colorado springscom, or call 719-679-4720.